Spotted some sad news, today, regarding the welfare of a member of New York City’s own punk royalty and one of the preeminent figure of the “No Wave” scene. Not that he’s every seemed especially well, but the legendary James Chance is having a pretty tough time of it, these days. Beyond the death of his longtime girlfriend Judy Taylor back in October of 2020, Chance’s health and circumstances seem to be in perilous decline.
Back in January, one David Siegfriend, the organizer of this GoFundMe page designed to help Chance out, gave this update…
Dear Friends and Fans of James Chance, I need to update everyone on James's current status. His health issues of severe abdominal pain and spinal stenosis have not improved. But thanks to you, the GoFundMe donors, we have been able to keep James at his apartment at The Dorothy Ross Friedman Residence for the past three years. But now I have been informed by building management that they have decided to take legal action because they want to force James to move out of there and into an assisted living facility. A Medicaid assisted living facility would be a real downgrade in living conditions and he is vehemently against having to move, but we will have to see what happens and will have to abide by whatever the court decides. I hope everyone is doing well in the new year, and if you can find it in your heart to donate again, even a small amount, it will help a lot as the funds are running quite low and we're still hoping to reach our goal. Thanks, David S
Please checkout Siegfried’s GoFundMe page and donate if you can.
My friend Miles and I actually went to see James Chance perform, a few years back, when he was promoting his 2016 album, The Flesh is Weak at Bowery Electric, but I seem to remember having to leave early, inexplicably (Too crowed? Too hot? Too late to the stage? School night? Who remembers?), so I regrettably can never say I saw the great man play.
That said, I did once spot him being interviewed, circa 2017, on the stoop of 77 White Street, the former site of the Mudd Club. See that here.
The picture up top of James Chance in his prime, meanwhile, was taken by none other than the great Julia Gorton, a truly remarkable and prescient photographer who captured an amazing swathe of images from New York City’s thriving underground scene in the late `70s and early `80s. Her striking, black-&-white photographs of folks like Chance, Lydia Lunch, Richard Hell, Debbie Harry, Tom Verlaine, Anya Phillips and a host of other notable downtowners have recently been collected into a stately coffee-table book called “Nowhere New York: Dark, Insulting + Unmelodic Photos by Julia Gorton.” Appended with essays, quotes and testimonials from period-specific luminaries, participants and spectators, “Nowhere New York” is a truly rare glimpse into the whole “No Wave” scene that – unlike some of its comparatively esoteric and textbooky predecessors – provides an illuminating and genuinely warm angle to proceedings. Portrayed by Gorton’s lens and embellished by personal anecdotes, fabled figures once locked in starkly grainy punk rock mythology became relatable, human individuals. Gordon’s book is a captivating vista into that whole era.
Meanwhile, here’s a taste of James Chance in his prime….
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